Video teleconferencing services for a vehicle or remote locations

ABSTRACT

A voice over internet protocol (VoIP) system for an aircraft includes a ground gateway, an aircraft gateway disposed on the aircraft, and a service provider network disposed on the aircraft. The ground gateway is in communication with the aircraft gateway via the service provider network. The aircraft gateway includes a first proxy agent, and the ground gateway includes a second proxy agent. The first proxy agent and the second proxy agent communicate a network packet for a number streams. The network packet includes a header and voice payloads for the streams.

BACKGROUND

The inventive concepts disclosed herein relate generally to the field ofcommunication systems. More particularly, embodiments of the inventiveconcepts disclosed herein relate to systems and methods for providingvideo teleconferencing (VTC) services in remote locations or for avehicle (e.g., an aircraft, ship, or land vehicle).

Conventional VTC services require communication links with a largecommunication bandwidth (BW) and high reliability. As a result, VTCservices for vehicles, such as, private jets and passenger aircraft, andfor remote locations are either very expensive or not offered at all.Some high-end luxury private aircraft may provide VTC services thatrequire expensive air-ground communication links that ensure low packetdrop ratio and offer enough BW to carry a single VTC session. There is aneed for lower cost VTC services for private jets and passengeraircrafts as well as remote locations.

SUMMARY

In one aspect, the inventive concepts disclosed herein are directed asystem for providing video teleconferencing services for a vehicle orremote location. The vehicle or remote location includes a first gatewayin communication with a service provider network. The system includes asecond gateway in communication with the first gateway via the serviceprovider network. The second gateway includes a first proxy agent. Thefirst proxy agent communicates I-frame packets and P-frame packets for avideo teleconferencing service using network coding. The I-frame packetsare provided in a burst of a number K of packets, where the number Kminus a number N is a number of redundant I-frame packets. The networkcoding is applied to a number L of the P-frame packets in a series; thenumber L is an integer less than 6. The numbers K and N are integers.

In another aspect, the inventive concepts disclosed herein are directedto a system for providing video teleconferencing services for a vehicleor remote location. The vehicle or remote location includes a firstgateway in communication with a service provider network. A secondgateway is in communication with the first gateway via the serviceprovider network. The first gateway includes a first proxy agent. Thefirst proxy agent communicates I-frame packets and P-frame packets for avideo teleconferencing service using network coding. The I frame packetsare provided in a burst of a number K of packets, where the number Kminus a number N is a number of redundant I-frame packets. The networkcoding is applied to a number L of the P-frame packets in a series; thenumber L being an integer less than 6. The numbers K and N are integers.

In a further aspect, the inventive concepts disclosed herein aredirected to a method of providing video teleconferencing services for avehicle or remote location. The method includes receiving I-packets andP-packets associated with video teleconferencing services at a firstproxy agent disposed on the vehicle or at the remote location,processing the I-packets and P-packets at the first proxy agent andintentionally dropping at least one P-frame packet in response tonetwork conditions. The method also includes providing the I-packets andthe undropped P-packets to a second proxy agent in communication withthe first gateway via a service provider network having the networkconditions.

In a further aspect, the inventive concepts disclosed herein aredirected to a system for providing video teleconferencing services for avehicle or remote location. The system includes a first gateway disposedon the vehicle or at the remote location in communication with a serviceprovider network. The service provider network is in communication witha second gateway in communication with a ground network with webservices. The first gateway processes I-frame packets and P-framepackets for a video teleconferencing service. The P-frame packets areintentionally dropped either before transmitting from the first gatewayto the service provider network in response to network conditions orafter receipt by the first gateway from the service provider network inresponse to a missing P-frame packet.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Implementations of the inventive concepts disclosed herein may be betterunderstood when consideration is given to the following detaileddescription thereof. Such description makes reference to the includeddrawings, which are not necessarily to scale, and in which some featuresmay be exaggerated and some features may be omitted or may berepresented schematically in the interest of clarity. Like referencenumerals in the drawings may represent and refer to the same or similarelement, feature, or function. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of VTC communication system for anaircraft including a VTC airborne gateway in communication with a groundnetwork with web services according to exemplary aspects of theinventive concepts disclosed herein;

FIG. 2 is a general block diagram of the VTC communication systemincluding the VTC airborne gateway illustrated in FIG. 1 according toexemplary aspects of the inventive concepts disclosed herein;

FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of video packets for the VTCcommunication system illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of a concatenated packet payloadfor the communication system illustrated in FIG. 2 according toexemplary aspects of the inventive concepts disclosed herein; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of a network packet for a videostream including a compound header and a concatenated packet payload forthe communication system illustrated in FIG. 2 according to exemplaryaspects of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Before explaining at least one embodiment of the inventive conceptsdisclosed herein in detail, it is to be understood that the inventiveconcepts are not limited in their application to the details ofconstruction and the arrangement of the components or steps ormethodologies set forth in the following description or illustrated inthe drawings. In the following detailed description of embodiments ofthe instant inventive concepts, numerous specific details are set forthin order to provide a more thorough understanding of the inventiveconcepts. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in theart having the benefit of the instant disclosure that the inventiveconcepts disclosed herein may be practiced without these specificdetails. In other instances, well-known features may not be described indetail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the instant disclosure. Theinventive concepts disclosed herein are capable of other embodiments orof being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it is to beunderstood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein is forthe purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

As used herein a letter following a reference numeral is intended toreference an embodiment of the feature or element that may be similar,but not necessarily identical, to a previously described element orfeature bearing the same reference numeral (e.g., 1, 1 a, 1 b). Suchshorthand notations are used for purposes of convenience only, andshould not be construed to limit the inventive concepts disclosed hereinin any way unless expressly stated to the contrary.

Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary, “or” refers to aninclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example, a condition A or Bis satisfied by any one of the following: A is true (or present) and Bis false (or not present), A is false (or not present) and B is true (orpresent), or both A and B is true (or present).

In addition, use of the “a” or “an” are employed to describe elementsand components of embodiments of the instant inventive concepts. This isdone merely for convenience and to give a general sense of the inventiveconcepts, and “a” and “an” are intended to include one or at least oneand the singular also includes the plural unless it is obvious that itis meant otherwise.

Finally, as used herein any reference to “one embodiment” or “someembodiments” means that a particular element, feature, structure, orcharacteristic described in connection with the embodiment is includedin at least one embodiment of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.The appearances of the phrase “in some embodiments” in various places inthe specification are not necessarily all referring to the sameembodiment, and embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed mayinclude one or more of the features expressly described or inherentlypresent herein, or any combination or sub-combination of two or moresuch features, along with any other features which may not necessarilybe expressly described or inherently present in the instant disclosure.

Embodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein are directed tosystems and methods of offering passengers on board a commercial orprivate aircraft VTC services that are reliable, low cost, and minimizethe use of BW. However, the systems and methods can be utilized inremote areas or on other vehicles including ground based and navalvehicles. In some embodiments, the systems and methods allow multipleVTC sessions (e.g., for first class and business class passengers)between the aircraft and the ground while using low cost widebandservice providers for air-ground communication links. The systems andmethods use different proxy agents that work together to optimize theperformance of VTC sessions given the unique environments and networkconditions associated with aircraft and remote locations in someembodiments.

In some embodiments, the systems and methods extend WebEx H.264 VTCservices from a ground network to the aircraft. The system and methodsuse proxy techniques that manipulate the VTC packet stream over theair-ground link to overcome the challenges of the air-ground links suchas bandwidth limitation, high packet loss, and variations of packetdelay in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the systems and methodsaim to maximize the VTC user perception of the session quality throughtechniques that shape traffic flow (e.g., intentionally drop packets),protect packets with network coding to overcome packet loss, concatenatesmall packets to save bandwidth, and synchronize the stream before itreaches the VTC decoder.

In some embodiments, the systems and methods use the proxy techniquessimilar to the proxy techniques for voice streams described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/594,324, (47141 1257) incorporated hereinby reference in its entirety and assigned to the assignee of the presentapplication. In some embodiments, a codec (e.g., a H.264 codec)separates the voice stream from the video stream, and the voice streamis processed according to the voice over IP systems and methods providedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/594,324, (47141 1257) usingconcatenation for the voice payloads in some embodiments. In someembodiments, proxy techniques that pertain to the video stream as wellas the synchronization of the voice and video stream are provided beforeboth streams enter the decoder. In some embodiments, a collection ofproxy techniques over the air-ground links allow VTC services to beextended to aircraft and remote locations using existing H.264techniques used with networks with Cisco WebEx services. A subset ofthese proxy techniques can be used to adapt to different air-groundlinks characteristics in order to make VTC services available topassengers on private and commercial aircraft in some embodiments.

With reference to FIG. 1, an aircraft 10 includes a VTC communicationsystem 20. The aircraft houses passengers 22 a-m with access to VTCservices via the VTC communication system 20 (where 24 m represents alast passenger). The passengers 22 a-m have access to terminals,handsets or devices 24 a-m for VTC services. The VTC communicationsystem 20 includes a wide area network (WAN) interface unit 26, a localarea network (LAN) interface unit 27, an aircraft VTC proxy agentgateway 28, a wireless communications media or a service providernetwork 32, and a ground VTC proxy agent gateway 42. The ground VTCproxy agent gateway 42 is coupled to or in communication with a groundnetwork 44. The ground network 44 includes Cisco web services in someembodiments. The aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 is coupled with orin communication with the communications media or service providernetwork 32 via the WAN interface unit 26. The aircraft VTC proxy agentgateway 28 is coupled with or in communication with the devices 24 a-mvia the LAN interface unit 27. The ground VTC proxy agent gateway 42 isin communication with the service provider network 32.

The devices 24 a-m can reside on or be cellular phones (e.g., smartphones), lap top computers, tablets, or a smart application or can bein-seat or cabin video conferencing units, or other communicationdevices. The devices 24 a-m function as a video telephones configuredfor use with the VTC communication system 20. Each device 24 a-mincludes a processor unit, a memory, and communication hardware. Thememory stores one or more programs which, when executed by theprocessor, facilitate operation of the devices 24 a-m within the VTCcommunication system 20.

In some embodiments, the aircraft 10 communicates with the serviceprovider network 32 via the WAN interface unit 26 (FIG. 2) which caninclude a data radio for providing off aircraft communications. In someembodiments, the WAN interface unit 26 can interface to an L-Band LowEarth Orbit (LEO), a Ku band geosynchronous (GEO), or a Ka band GEOsatellite radio. In some embodiments, the service provider network 32 isa private network or a broadband satellite network to providecommunications to a ground commercial wireless network (e.g., areceiving station coupled to the ground VTC proxy agent gateway 42 via asatellite network) and includes the equipment for communicating withsuch networks.

The aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 is a network device forprocessing communications between the service provider network 32 andthe devices 24 a-m. The aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 is aboardthe aircraft 10 (or at a remote location) and includes a softwaredefined network (SDN) platform in some embodiments. The aircraft VTCproxy agent gateway 28 is coupled wirelessly or via wired connection tothe devices 24 a-m. The ground VTC proxy agent gateway 42 is a peer tothe aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 and is a network device forprocessing communications between the service provider network 32 andthe ground network 44. The ground VTC proxy agent gateway 42 is remotefrom the aircraft 10 (e.g., is a fixed land based network device) andincludes an SDN platform in some embodiments. The ground VTC proxy agentgateway 42 is configured to provide a first proxy agent as a servicerelay point to the aircraft 10 and works with a second proxy agent ofthe aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 to provide the VTC services.

The first and second proxy agents are peered together to ensure that theVTC services can be used seamlessly and reliably between the cabin ofthe aircraft 10 and the ground. The first and second proxy agentsmanipulate the actual video packets as described below to increasevolume capabilities and reduce user perception of communication failuresin some embodiments. Applicant has found that the largest cause ofdegradation of video quality in H.264 decoding operations comes frommissing a single packet carrying H.264 encoded video information (due topacket drop or packet error). The H.264 decoding operations assumes theuse of reliable ground networks where packet loss is rare which is notalways a correct assumption when VTC services are performed in vehiclesor remote locations. The proxy techniques at the ingress and egresspoints process the packet stream to compensate for potentialcommunication failures over the service provider network 32 and areconfigured to cause the image to freeze rather than having the userperceive the image as garbled in some embodiments. As long as the voiceinformation continues to be provided in a synchronized manner, a frozenvideo for one or two seconds in a video teleconference can usually beperceived as a minor inconvenience. A garbled screen, loss of voice, orlosing synchronization between voice and video can often be considered amajor degradation of quality.

In some embodiments, the first and second proxy agents process videopackets that have been separated by the H.264 decoder (e.g., the voicepacket stream is separated from the video packet stream), therebyallowing the aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 and the ground VTCproxy agent gateway 42 to process the video and voice streamseparately).

The ground VTC proxy agent gateway 42 and the aircraft VTC proxy agentgateway 28 can include the hardware and software described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/594,324, (47141 1257) incorporated hereinby reference for processing the separated voice stream. The ground VTCproxy agent gateway 42 and the aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 canuse time stamping to ensure synchronization of the separated video andvoice streams.

With reference to FIG. 2, the devices 24 a-m are in communication withthe aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 via network connections 52 a-mwhich can be wireless or wired links. Each device 24 a-m can beassociated with a single communication stream (e.g., a VTC session)processed by the VTC communication system 20. In some embodiments, theLAN interface unit 27 is coupled to the devices 24 a-m through anEthernet link or WiFi link. In some embodiments, the devices 24 a-minclude a VTC application (e.g., a codec such as an H.264 codec), acommunications application, and a payload module for processing bothdownstream and upstream data streams across network connections 52 a-m.

As shown in FIG. 2, the aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 includes aprocessor unit 102 and a memory 104 and is coupled to the WAN interfaceunit 26 and the LAN interface unit 27. The processor unit 102 is coupledto the memory 104, the WAN interface unit 26 and the LAN interface unit27. The memory 104 contains one or more programs or modules which, whenexecuted by the processor unit 102, facilitate operability of the VTCcommunication system 20. In some embodiments, the memory 104 comprises avideo processing software module 108, and a packet processing module116. The video processing software module 108 processes communicationsto and from the WAN interface unit 26 and the LAN interface unit 27. Thepacket processing module 116 includes a network coder 117, a timestamper 123, concatenator 124, an ingress packet dropper 125, adeconcatenator 126, a network decoder 129, and an egress packet dropper131.

With reference to FIG. 3, a video stream 200 for VTC services includesI-frame packets 202 a-c and P-frame packets 204 a-c. In someembodiments, the video stream is an H.264 video stream where an encoderencodes a still image (at an adaptive resolution) followed by encodedmotion vectors that represent the deltas or the changes in the stillimage over short increments of time. The encoded motion vectors can beemitted for a period of time before the encoder emits a new still image(and then a new set of encoded vectors are emitted). The still imagedata is packed in Internet Protocol (IP) packets (e.g., the I-Framepackets 202 a-c), while the motion vectors data is packed in the P-Framepackets 204 a-c. A single packet loss can have a compound effect on thevideo quality of a video conference. For example, if the P-frame packet204 a is a missed packet from a group of the P-frame packets 204 a-cafter the I-frame packet 202 a, the P-frame packets 204 b-c coming afterthat missed packet 204 a cause more harm than good because the motionvector estimation after the missing packet 204 a results in theproduction of a garbled picture by a decoder. When the decoder receivesa new I-frame packet (e.g., the I-frame packet 202 b), the video streamclears again. Similarly, if one of the I-frame packets 202 a-c is lost,the still frame is not be complete and the motion vector estimationresulted from all the P-Frame packets (until the next I-frame packet)can garble the decoded video.

With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, the network coder 117 performs networkcoding on the downstream packets (video data from the aircraft 10 to theground) and the network decoder 129 performs network decoding onupstream packets (e.g., video data from the ground to the aircraft 10).The upstream packets and downstream packets are buffered in the buffer112. The coding by the network coder 117 and decoding by the networkdecoder 129 are error control coding techniques developed for packetstreams. The error control coding is performed at the IP layer andtargets cases where the service provider link packet loss probabilitycan be unacceptable for VTC applications in some embodiments. Networkcoding reduces the effective packet loss ratio for the VTC applicationsthat are sensitive to packet loss.

In some embodiments, if network conditions are such that BW is abundantor high (e.g., suitable for ordinary VTC conferencing) but packet lossis high (e.g., too high for suitable ordinary VTC conferencing), theaircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 and the ground VTC proxy agentgateway 42 trade some BW for reliability. For example, when a commercialjet has a broadband satellite link that has plenty of bandwidth but thelink characteristics cause high packet loss, the VTC quality can stillbe unacceptable. In some embodiments, the aircraft VTC proxy agentgateway 28 at the ingress point to the air-ground link (e.g., theservice provider network 32) protects both I-Frame and P-frame packetswith using network coding by the network coder 117. In some embodiments,the network coder 117 encodes both I-frame packets 202 a-c and P-framepackets 204 a-c to create some redundancy packets that can overcomepacket loss. Using network coding with I-frame packets 202 a-c can bedifferent from using network coding with P-frame packets 204 a-c.

The I-frame packets tend to be large (except for the last packet in theframe) (e.g., as large as an Ethernet frame). The I-frame packets carrya lot of information; an entire image is encoded into a group of theI-frame packets 202 a-c. The I-frame packets 202 a-c arrive to theingress point more or less as a burst. For high resolution H.264, thereare more packets in the burst. For less resolution, there are lesspackets in the burst. To implement network coding for the I-framepackets 202 a-c, the last packet is padded in the burst so that allI-frame packets 202 a-c have the same size. If the number of I-framepackets 202 a-c in the burst is K, network coding is applied to the KI-frame packets. K can be variable and network coding is adaptable.Based on the link characteristics, N is chosen where N−K is the numberof redundant I-frame packets. When the BW is higher and the link qualityis lower, the number N is larger. When the BW is lower and the linkquality is higher, the number N is less.

The P-frame packets 204 a-c are also encoded by the network coder 117.The P-frame packets tend to be short (e.g., carrying the motionvectors). The P-frame packets 204 a-c arrive to the ingress point in agenerally clocked manner (e.g., the inter-arrival time between theP-Frame packets 204 a-c in the same P-frame window can depend on theresolution (high resolution means less inter-arrival time). The timeperiod that a P-frame window covers also depends on the resolution (highresolution means I-frame packets are more frequent and hence P-framewindow periods are smaller). Advantageously, the network coder 117 usesnetwork coding for the P-frame packets 204 a-c to pad packets as neededto create a fixed size for all L encoded packets. The L packets to beencoded is timing critical so a large number of P-frame packets are notused, and the network coding is applied to a limited number (L=4-6) ofthe P-Frame packets 204 a-c in some embodiments. There is a closed loopbetween the ingress and egress points. Accordingly, encoding at theground is decoded by the network decoder 129 at the aircraft and viceversa.

In some embodiments when network conditions are such that the BW is lowor scarce (e.g., well below a level suitable for ordinary VTCconferencing), the aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 at the ingresspoint to the air-ground link (e.g., the service provider network 32)intentionally drops at least one of the P-frame packets 204 a-c usingthe ingress packet dropper 125 and protects the I-frame packets 202 a-cusing the network coder 117 with network coding. The number of droppedP-frame packets can be chosen based upon available bandwidth. Thedropping of the P-frame packets 204 a-c saves BW that is used for theI-frame packets 202 a-c with network coding. For example, with theoperation of the ingress packet dropper 125, the user sees an updatedimage every 1-2 seconds and no or rare garbled images. If the voicestream is synchronized, the user perception would be a mereinconvenience, but the session will continue. This technique preventsthe user experience of a garbled screen most of the time.

In some embodiments, if BW is low (slightly tight or suitable VTCoperations) but link quality is good (e.g., packet loss ratio is low),the aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 at the ingress point to theair-ground link (e.g., the service provider network 32) can provide somesaving of BW without shaping (intentionally dropping) or protection (e.g. by trading BW for reliability). The BW is saved by operation of theconcatenator 124. For example, for a jet leasing a small size link(e.g., ˜2-4 Mbps) for voice, video and data with the link qualityguaranteed by the link provider, the concatenator 124 can concatenatethe P-frame packets 204 a-c into a large size packet at the ingresspoint to reduce header size and reduce the number of packets per secondto save BW. The number of concatenated P-frame packets 204 a-c can belimited (4-6 packets) to avoid timing synchronization problems as theP-frame packets 204 a-c are synchronized. Upstream packets (e.g., videodata from the ground to the aircraft 10) from multiple links or streamsare buffered in the buffer 112 and the concatenated payloads aredeconcatenated by the deconcatenator 126.

With reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, P-frame packet payloads 230 a-f areconcatenated to form a single concatenated payload 242 by theconcatenator 124. The concatenated payload 242 is provided with an IPheader field 254 (FIG. 5) and an amendment 252 to form a network packet248. The aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 has a wide area network(WAN) interface to the ground VTC proxy agent gateway 42 that has aspecific IP address. The ground VTC proxy agent gateway 42 has aninterface to the aircraft 10 that has a specific IP address. Thesespecific IP addresses are used to create the IP header field 254 for theconcatenated payload 242.

The amendment 252 for the network packet 248 provides the minimum amountof information that allows the ground VTC proxy agent gateway 42 torecreate the headers for each of the P-frame packet payloads 230 a-f.The amendment 252 includes f different segments, where each segmentcorresponds to the packet payloads 230 a-f. The VTC communication system20 can be configured to use a sequence of bits to separate each segmentor to use a fixed-size byte length for each segment.

In some embodiments, the proxy agent of the aircraft VTC proxy agentgateway 28 concatenates the payloads 230 a-f using a scheduler that canconcatenate the f payloads 230 a-f and relies on the proxy agent of theground VTC proxy agent gateway 42 to reverse the concatenation (e.g., todeconcatenate). For the uplink traffic, the proxy agent of the groundVTC proxy agent gateway 42 concatenates the f payloads 230 a-f providedby the ground network 44 (FIG. 1) and relies upon the aircraft VTC proxyagent gateway 28 to reverse the concatenation.

In some embodiments, the egress packet dropper 131 drops P-frame packetsat the egress point to reduce adverse effects on user perception of theVTC quality. At the egress point (after the air-ground link (serviceprovider network 32) and before reaching the H.264 decoder), the P-framepackets 204 a-c are monitored. If a missing P-frame packet 204 a-c isdetected, all the P-frame packets 204 a-c after the missing packet inthe P-frame window are dropped by the egress packet dropper 131.Accordingly, all subsequent P-frame packets are dropped until the nextI-frame packet 202 a-c is received in some embodiments. The droppedP-packets can cause a garbled the screen if not dropped in someembodiments. The egress packet dropper 131 in essence freezes the videostream for a short period instead of having it garbled in someembodiments.

In some embodiments, the ingress packet dropper 125 can be operated todrop a P-frame packet every number P number of frames, where P is aninteger (e.g., 1, 2, 3, etc.) This technique can be used if networkconditions have a very tight BW but high reliability. With thistechnique, at the ingress point, the entire P-frame window of packets isdropped every other I-flame packet 202 a-c or every three frames. Thisis a packet shaping method that reduces packet flow volume for the VTCsession. The user perceives an alternation between frozen images andmotion due to the shaping technique. This technique can be implementedin an adaptable manner in some embodiments by using a mechanism to sensethe available bandwidth for the VTC session and adapt accordingly bydropping P-frame packets 204 a-c every window (just allow still images),every three windows, or every other window in some embodiments.

The concatenation, packet dropping, and network coding techniquesdescribed above can be used all at once, individually, or as subsetsaccording to various control schemes. The above proxy techniques canskew the associated with decoding voice and video for the user at thesame time. Time stamps before the ingress techniques (in an option field256 of the network packet 248 and other IP packets) can be used forsynchronization. The time stamps are used at the egress point foremission of the packets in a synchronized manner for the H.264 decoder.

At least some of the elements associated with the packet processing inthe aircraft VTC proxy agent gateway 28 can be realized in hardware. Insome embodiments, payloads are processed at an IP layer of the aircraftVTC proxy agent gateway 28. The LAN interface unit 27 includes circuitsfor connecting the devices 24 a-m to the processor unit 102 and circuitsfor facilitating VTC communications including transmitters, receivers,and operator controls, among other devices. The WAN interface unit 26includes circuits for connecting the service provider network 32 to theprocessor unit 102 and circuits for facilitating VTC communicationsincluding transmitters, receivers, and operator controls, among otherdevices. The ground VTC proxy agent gateway 42 includes modules andcircuitry for concatenation and deconcatenation and network coding anddecoding similar to the modules and circuitry described above withrespect to FIG. 2. In some embodiments, the aircraft VTC proxy agentgateway 28 and the ground VTC proxy agent gateway 32 are heuristic SDNswith capability to measure link characteristics such as bandwidth andreliability in real time. For example, a software module can measure theBW and packet drop ratio. The module can utilize the amount of leased BWand adaptively adjust to actual conditions. In some embodiments, amoving average of packet drop ration and BW is used to select the packetshaping, concatenation, and network coding techniques and parameters forsuch techniques.

It is to be understood that embodiments of the methods according to theinventive concepts disclosed herein may include one or more of the stepsdescribed herein. Further, such steps may be carried out in any desiredorder and two or more of the steps may be carried out simultaneouslywith one another. Two or more of the steps disclosed herein may becombined in a single step, and in some embodiments, one or more of thesteps may be carried out as two or more sub-steps. Further, other stepsor sub-steps may be carried out in addition to, or as substitutes to oneor more of the steps disclosed herein.

From the above description, it is clear that the inventive conceptsdisclosed herein are well adapted to carry out the objects and to attainthe advantages mentioned herein as well as those inherent in theinventive concepts disclosed herein. While presently preferredembodiments of the inventive concepts disclosed herein have beendescribed for purposes of this disclosure, it will be understood thatnumerous changes may be made which will readily suggest themselves tothose skilled in the art and which are accomplished within the broadscope and coverage of the inventive concepts disclosed and claimedherein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for providing video teleconferencingservices for a vehicle or remote location, the system comprising: afirst gateway in communication with a service provider network; and asecond gateway in communication with the first gateway via the serviceprovider network, wherein the second gateway comprises a first proxyagent configured to communicate I-frame packets for a videoteleconferencing service using network coding in a burst of an integernumber K of packets, where the integer number K minus an integer numberN is a number of redundant I-frame packets, and to communicate P-framepackets for the video teleconferencing service using network codingapplied to an integer number L of the P-frame packets in a series, thenumber L being an integer less than
 6. 2. The system of claim 1, thefirst gateway comprises a second proxy agent.
 3. The system of claim 2,wherein the second gateway intentionally drops at least one of theP-frame packets before transmission on the service provider network toprotect the communication of the I-frame packets in response toconditions on the service provider network.
 4. The system of claim 2,wherein the second gateway concatenates the P-frame packets intoconcatenated packet in response to conditions on the service providernetwork.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the concatenated packetincludes a compound header.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the firstgateway is disposed in the vehicle and the second gateway is disposed ata ground location and coupled to a ground network with web services. 7.The system of claim 1, wherein the second gateway intentionally dropsthe P-frame packets before a next I-frame packet received from theservice provider network in response to a missing P-frame packet.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the second gateway intentionally drops at theP-frame packets before transmission on the service provider networkevery number of the I-frame packets in response to conditions on theservice provider network.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the numberis from 1 to
 3. 10. A method of providing video teleconferencingservices for a vehicle or remote location, the method comprising:receiving I-packets and P-packets associated with the videoteleconferencing services at a first proxy agent disposed on the vehicleor at the remote location; processing the I-packets and P-packets at thefirst proxy agent and intentionally dropping at least one P-frame packetin response to network conditions; and providing the I-packets and theundropped P-packets to a second proxy agent in communication with thefirst proxy agent via a service provider network having the networkconditions.
 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: receivingthe I-packets and P-packets associated with the video teleconferencingservices at the second proxy agent disposed at a ground location; andprocessing the I-packets and P-packets at the second proxy agent andintentionally dropping at least one of the P-packets in response to thenetwork conditions.
 12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:providing the I-packets and P-packets associated with the videoteleconferencing services processed by at the second proxy agent to aCisco web services network.
 13. The method of claim 10, furthercomprising: concatenating the P-packets associated with the videoteleconferencing services at the first proxy agent; and deconcatenatingthe P-packets associated with the video teleconferencing services at thesecond proxy agent.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the P-framepackets are concatenated and provided as concatenated packet with acompound header.
 15. The method of claim 10, wherein voice packets areseparated from the I-frame packets and P-frame packets and sent as VOIPpackets using proxies.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein I-framepackets and P-frame packets are processed so that the I-frame packetsare sent with redundant I-frame packets and the P-frame packets are sentwithout redundant P-frame packets.
 17. A system for providing videoteleconferencing services for a vehicle or remote location, the systemcomprising: a first gateway disposed on the vehicle or at the remotelocation in communication with a service provider network, the serviceprovider network being in communication with a second gateway incommunication with a ground network with a web services, wherein thefirst gateway processes I-frame packets and P-frame packets for a videoteleconferencing service, wherein the P-frame packets are intentionallydropped either before transmitting from the first gateway to the serviceprovider network in response to network conditions or after receipt bythe first gateway from the service provider network in response to amissing P-frame packet.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the I-framepackets are provided as a burst of K packets according to networkcoding, where K−N is a number of redundant I-frame packets, where K isan integer and N is an integer number, wherein the network coding isapplied to a number L of the P-frame packets in a series, the number Lbeing an integer less than
 6. 19. The system of claim 17, wherein theI-frame packets and the P-frame packets are provided by an H.264decoder.
 20. The system of claim 17, wherein the first gatewayconcatenates the P-frame packets and does not concatenate the I-framepackets.